MoMA adds computer symbol to architecture and design collection

on Wednesday,March 24,2010 13:03

Although it can't be worn on the red carpet or lay the foundation for a skyscraper, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has declared the @ symbol an example of outstanding design and architecture by adding it to its collection, the New York Times reports.

The sign, which is most commonly used in email addresses and social networking language, will join approximately 28,000 other exemplary pieces of design and architecture. Overall, there are roughly 175,000 items in MoMA's entire collection.

An acquisitions committee comprised of 25 architecture and design specialists selected the symbol at a meeting, where they ranked it according to its form, function, ability to purvey clarity, honesty and simplicity, essential quality of design, innovativeness as well as its impact on everyday life.

Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design and MoMA, told the news source that the selection is appropriate to modern times because "design these days is often an act with aesthetic and ethical consequences, not necessarily a physical object."

Furthermore, because the @ is more of a concept than a piece of art or design and cannot be traced to a single original creator, it may be the only object to be acquired at no cost, according to the MoMA website.

Teenlike.com, an ongoing online competition for young home decor designers, announced its second winner. Brandon Dover of Apply Valley, California, was this year's winner, as he created an abstract pen and inkwork design for a bedspread.